1Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
2He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done.
3He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Yahweh and repaired them.
4He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.
5And he said to them, “Listen to me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry out the impurity from the sanctuary.
6For our fathers acted unfaithfully and did the evil in the eyes of Yahweh our God, and they forsook him; they turned their faces away from the dwelling of Yahweh and gave it their back.
7They also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, and they did not burn incense and did not offer up a burnt offering in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.
8So the wrath of Yahweh came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he made them an object of horror, of desolation, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
9For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity because of this.
10Now it is in my heart to cut a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that his burning anger may turn away from us.
11My sons, do not now be negligent, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and to be his ministers and those who burn incense.”
12Then the Levites arose: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, from the sons of the Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;
13and from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
14and from the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15They gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves, and they came, according to the command of the king by the words of Yahweh, to purify the house of Yahweh.
16And the priests came into the inner part of the house of Yahweh to purify it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Yahweh into the courtyard of the house of Yahweh; and the Levites received it, to carry it out to the Wadi Kidron.
17They began the consecration on the first of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of Yahweh, and they consecrated the house of Yahweh for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
18Then they went inside to Hezekiah the king and said, “We have purified the whole house of Yahweh, the altar of burnt offering and all its vessels, and the table of the arrangement and all its vessels.
19And all the vessels that King Ahaz had cast aside during his reign in his unfaithfulness we have prepared and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of Yahweh.”
20Then Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of Yahweh.
21And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he told the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them up on the altar of Yahweh.
22So they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; then they slaughtered the rams and dashed the blood against the altar; and they slaughtered the lambs and dashed the blood against the altar.
23Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them.
24And the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king had said that the burnt offering and the sin offering were for all Israel.
25He stationed the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres, according to the command of David and of Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; for the command was from the hand of Yahweh through his prophets.
26So the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
27Then Hezekiah commanded to offer up the burnt offering on the altar. And at the time the burnt offering began, the song of Yahweh began too, with the trumpets and accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel.
28And the whole assembly was bowing down, and the song was being sung and the trumpets were sounding — all of it — until the burnt offering was finished.
29And when the offering up was finished, the king and all who were present with him knelt down and bowed low.
30Then Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to praise Yahweh with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they praised with gladness, and they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.
31Then Hezekiah responded and said, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Yahweh.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing of heart brought burnt offerings.
32And the number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy oxen, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh.
33And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
34Only the priests were too few, and they were not able to flay all the burnt offerings; so their kinsmen the Levites helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves — for the Levites were more upright of heart to consecrate themselves than the priests.
35And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings and with the drink offerings for the burnt offering. So the service of the house of Yahweh was established.
36And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, over what God had prepared for the people, for the thing had come about suddenly.
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